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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Writing
a memoir is so different than writing a novel as you are exposing who you are.
What made you decide to “bare your soul”?

When I first began to put in words what is now the content
of my book, Solacers— my account of growing up in Iran— I did not give much
thought as to why, what for, and why now, after all these years, am I writing
them? I wasn’t thinking about any great purpose my story was going to serve,
who its audience was going to be and how it was going to improve or impact their
lives, if any. It wasn’t my intention to avenge or to vilify places and people
with my pen, or to help myself find closure, either. And definitely, I did not
write this book to save the world.

I am not into mental regurgitation of unpleasant events. Therefore
writing a book about my difficult childhood was the last thing I wanted to do.
In 2003, after a complex brain surgery, I lost a good portion of my eyesight
and became grounded.That provided me
with an ample opportunity to sit around and think. After a few years of this,
one day I began to slowly tap away at my old computer’s keyboard and
painstakingly, one word at a time, write. I thought I put my story in a book
and throw it out into the ocean of life, so to speak, for anyone who wishes to
pick it up and read it.

How
long did it take you to write the first draft?

It took about two years for me to complete the first draft
and I wasn’t too happy with the end result. So I decided to rewrite almost the
entire manuscript. Not having had to meet any deadlines, together with my snail
like typing speed— due to defective eyesight, were to blame for the lengthy
writing period. Once the manuscript was done, for the second time, I had a
couple of literate friends proofread it, before I hired two professional editors;
a general editor and then a copy editor, to polish it up.

Your
book was honored with being a finalist in the William Saroyan International
Prize for Writing. How did you hear about that contest? Tell me about the
process? I came across the announcement for the William Saroyan Prize
on a writers’ related website. The submission process was listed on Stanford
University Libraries’ website. In May of 2012, approximately six months after I
had submitted Solacers, Stanford News
announced the shortlist. Solacers was
one of twelve books in the nonfiction category. In August of that year the
names of the top three books in each category— fiction and nonfiction; one
winner and two finalists, were announced. Solacers
was selected as a nonfiction finalist. Offering critique or feedback was not a
part of this award program.

As it
had to already be a published book, has this helped increase your sales?

As it is the nature of any awards, there was an immediate
and short spike in sales. But more importantly, the award gave Solacers a stamp of approval, so to
speak.

Red Corn Poppy Books is your personal
imprint. How did you put it together?

RedCornPoppy Books was formed with the help of a relative of
my wife for the sole purpose of publishing Solacers
and two other books that I am still working on.

After Solacers’
manuscript was complete, I began planning the publishing process. Plan A was to
find and work with an agent. Plan B, go directly to the publishers and plan C;
do it myself.

What
was your next step?

I compiled a list of literary agents that handled memoirs
and began sending them query letters, following their specific submission
instructions. After six months of fruitless letter writing, revising my query
letter a number of times along the way, I gave up on the agent idea.

Contrary to the popular belief, the majority of the agents
replied back. Of course the answer was always “No.” Two kind ladies even took
the time and wrote nice letters, praising my work and saying how they would
have represented it had it not been for the fact that the world’s economy was
on the verge of collapse. This was a year into the financial crisis that began
in 2008. They explained publishers, like most other business at the time, were
hesitant to invest in any new project, especially one that involved an unknown
author.

So you
moved on to finding a publisher?

For plan B, again I put together a list of publishers who
were in the business of publishing memoirs and still willing to deal directly
with an author. I wrote and submitted some sample chapters to a dozen or so
publishers and waited. About six months later I received a couple of offers
that I didn’t find all that attractive and declined.

It was now time for plan C. I did my homework thoroughly and
researched all aspects of printing- a- book business. The book’s physical size,
offset printing verses digital, UV coating of the cover verses film, paper’s
weight and color, font size and type, binding and so on. I have to mention here
that I wasn’t interested in taking the POD—print on demand, route. I wanted to
publish my book as if it was published by one of the largest and best
publishing companies in the world. And that is exactly what I did.

I had managed businesses with over thirty some million
dollars in annual sales, so publishing and managing the affairs of one little
book wasn’t all that difficult. Once I decided on what it was that I exactly
wanted my book to look and feel like, I found several reputable printing
companies that specialized in offset-printing and asked them for price
quotes.Solacers first run of over two thousand copies, was printed by the
same folks who printed Harry Potter books for the US market. The result was a
beautiful book.

How do
you write? Did you do an outline first?

In the case of Solacers
it was easy. The story was my childhood. I just needed to decide where to start
and how to tell it. Naturally, the opening chapter was very important to me. A
book’s first chapter is a lot like the first five minutes of a movie shown on
television; if it doesn’t grab people; they’ll change the channel. I decided to
open the book with a poignant scene from the middle of the story and then go
back and start from the beginning in the ensuing chapters.

For my new book “Welcome to Circuit City,”
a romantic comedy novel, I outlined the entire book before I began.

What
type of publicity do you do to promote your book?

Solacers has
participated in most major book fairs and festivals in Europe
and here at home. We have also run ad campaigns on Google, Facebook, Goodreads
and Book Daily, to name a few. Personally I have attended a dozen or so
book-singing and speaking events, mostly sponsored by book clubs in and around
my hometown.

What do
you know now about writing/publishing now that you wished you had known sooner?

Naturally, I know a lot more now about the business side of
writing a book than I did when I first started. It was a learning path that I
had to take in order to produce a professional product. Thankfully, because I
invested so much time researching and understanding the process, I made fewer
expensive mistakes along the way and at the same time, paved the way for my
forthcoming books.

What is
the best advice you’ve been given about writing or that you’ve learned that you
would like to pass along?

When it comes to writing, like doing anything else that is
not mandatory, self-discipline is very important.You must set a daily goal for yourself; how
many pages or words you need to write before you can check your emails, visit
your Facebook, text or tweet.

Writing and publishing a book, self-publishing more
specifically, is a lot like opening and running a restaurant. Just knowing how
to cook is not enough. Similarly, the ability to write by itself does not
translate into success. Understanding book production and manufacturing,
marketing, sales, inventory management, distribution and accounting is vital.
Of course, there are some POD publishers who would do some of what I just
listed for you, should you choose to go that route. But remember that nothing
is free. Naturally, publishing an eBook requires a different set of steps, but
you still have to market your book and sell it.

Writing a good book and
publishing it is only twenty percent of the work, the other eighty percent is
selling it.

If your purpose of writing a book is to get rich, you are
going to be disappointed. Whether you are publishing your book yourself or
going with a traditional publishing house, chances of “getting rich,” while not
improbable, is very unlikely, unless of course you are already rich and
famous.If you are planning on going the
traditional way, selling your manuscript to a publisher, your best bet is to
catch yourself a good agent. And good agents are not all that easy to
catch.

Thank you, Arion, for this insightful interview. I especially liked your statement about being able to cook won't make you a successful restauranteur. This equates to putting words on paper will not make you a successful writer. Too many think "If I write it, they will read it." Of course, we all know that to be true only for people who are already famous and want to keep themselves in the spotlight with a new book - many times written by a ghost writer not themselves.

To either buy his book or link to more about Arion's writing, click here.